By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — An officer accused of raping a drunk East Village woman while on duty returned to her aparmtent three times the night of the attack because they "struck up a rapport," his partner admitted in shocking testimony Friday.
"They were talking to each other. It seemed to me that they were becoming friendly," Franklin Mata, who is also charged, told jurors about his partner, Kenneth Moreno, 43, who is accused of raping the semi-conscious woman on Dec. 7, 2008.
"Friendly?" prosecutor Coleen Balbert asked during cross-examination.
"This sober officer and this drunk girl that was in the bathroom every time you [go to the apartment], these two were getting friendly with each other? Is that what you're telling us?" she continued.
"She was OK, she was conscious," the 29-year-old Mata said.
"So your definition of being OK is 'conscious' ?" Balbert asked.
The assistant district attorney grilled the officer, who was partnered with Moreno in the 9th Precinct for more than a year at the time of the alleged rape.
She accused Mata of lying about his and Moreno's whereabouts so Moreno could get what he wanted form the helpless woman, a 27-year-old fashion industry professional, who had been partying that night to celebrate a promotion.
The visits and the lying about their whereabouts were not, as Mata claimed, meant to "check on" the woman.
"It was so that he could go back there to have sex with her, isn't that right?" Balbert said.
"Absolutely not," the officer shot back.
Mata also said that a 911 call played at trial was a phony report made by his partner.
The caller claimed to be a citizen named "John Edwards," reporting a homeless man occupying a vestibule in a building on the victim's block.
Mata said he did not know his partner placed that call from a pay phone until recently, when he learned about it before the trial.
Prosecutors said the bogus call was meant to buy the officers time to return to the woman's apartment building for the second of four trips throughout the predawn hours.
The woman was so drunk she needed assistance out of the cab, according to previous testimony. Prosecutors said she woke up to Moreno having sex with her but was so drunk she couldn't move.
Both officers are charged with rape, burglary and official misconduct for allegedly failing to call an ambulance for the woman.
